Talk:Episode 1490 (30th April 1975)
Rehearse-Record I read in Bill Podmore's book that he was once called in at late notice to direct a pair of episodes. To take some of the strain out, the technical supervisor suggested he "rehearse-record" the scenes i.e rehearse each scene individually on the set and then record it as opposed to the then system of recording all of Part 1 in one take and then all of Part Two in another. It struck me as strange that they could do this,seemingly on a whim,when it 's obviously an easier system and makes one wonder why they already weren't doing this all the time. But,Podmore writes that this was the first time that the whole two episodes were recorded in this way. Anyway,he says that the cast loved it and was not long after adopted as standard practice. As this seems to be the only week that Podmore directed during this period I presume that it was episodes 1490 and 1491 The BFI monograph says that the programme began to be recorded using the rehearse-record system in 1974,but Daran Little's 40 Years book says that the programme was still being recorded in "story order"with minimal editing in 1975. Viewing the episodes that Granada Plus screened,I noticed the odd "fluff"during the earliest episodes in the run(Spring 1976),but quite soon afterwards this stopped. So,I reckon the rehearse-record system became standard practice something around Spring-Summer 1976,although Podmore doesn't state it happened when he was producer. Kathy Jones(Tricia Hopkins) says that to the best of her knowledge they were still using the "old" method of recording when she left in June 1976. But,in Daran Little's 35th Anniversary book,Jean Alexander recalls recording the scenes when Eddie Yeats put up her "murial"in July 1976. She mentions that all these scenes were recorded at the end of the recording day after the Langton's Anniversary party scenes. If all these recollections are correct then the permanent change to rehearse-record would seem to have happened around June 1976. I wonder does anyone have any additional knowledge on this subject? 70s Fan 21:57, February 11, 2012 (UTC) :I honestly have no idea but it's something I would very much like to know! I know other television programmes such as Doctor Who did some of their stories as rehearse record around this time but it was very much at the whim of the director and not a standard practice until the late 1970s. Part of the inhibitor prior to this was still the relative expense of videotape editing - and Granada were known in the industry as a very, shall we say, careful company when it came to spending money. Certainly, as you can see on the timecodes at the start of episodes on Network box sets, they were still talking in terms of Take 1 until the earlyu 1980s but this needn't mean anything.--Jtomlin1uk 20:35, February 18, 2012 (UTC) :Yes,I agree with your point about the timecodes. Also,the notes on Ep 1942 suugests that the old system of recording was still being used in 1979. Yet,the evidence I've offered in my earlier post suggest rehearse-record came in much earlier. :Incidentally,I know that the old system was used in Crossroads up until 1985. But in Dorothy Hobson's book on Crossroads from 1981,that system was already being written about as very outmoded and seemed to suggest that every other programme had long abandoned it. :70s Fan 17:17, February 19, 2012 (UTC)